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Although its a round-robin, the leaders have begun to collide in the late rounds of the U21 national championship, as several pairings through the tournament’s homestretch are proving favorable toward the Swiss theme.

The 2014 national championship for players under 21, which began Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, kicked off with several shocker upsets and has since proven extremely decisive -- with only four draws through 15 games.

In the second round of the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, four out of five games saw black answering in the classic resistance, though white was able to smash through all but one. GM Kayden Troff and IM Jeffrey Xiong lead the event after two rounds.

A day of decisive results marked the opening round of the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, the national title for players under 21, with all five matches finding their way to victory including two big upsets from Joshua Colas and Justus Williams.

The tight drama of the 2014 U.S. Championships turned out to be all for show. When the dust of the near two-week long fight cleared, the two champions left standing were the same two champions as before.